Bird flu? Are you worried about it

[Peachcis]

H5N1 or bird flu - it seems to be increasing.

Are you worried about it? It seems to be very severe.

Me personally - I am petrified for a few reasons.

I was unwell when I had covid and needed an antiviral to keep me out of hospital.

Then the worst is seeing and watching people and how they behave and manners or the lack of manners. When we emerged from covid I thought we were still in a delicate place with covid and I saw people with obvious sickness with no manners, coughing and sneezing into the open and into other people's faces even and even poor hand hygiene too.

Then there is covid and the damage it can do to immune systems and how can the two of them co-exist together? Covid can still be serious. I know many people like to say it's a mild cold but for me and my family, it was more like a flue for about two weeks and feeling week, tired and vulnerable for another few more weeks. I had after effects too and I was sore in my chest and gut issues.likely due to inflammation.

Bird flu seems to be worse now and I have no faith in people and many people will get sick and just pass it on.

No I'm not. I hate hysteria.

No not worried

No, not at all

Never given it a thought

It sounds like you’re still very anxious about Covid.

I am not concerned about bird flu for people. It’s been around for a long time.

I keep chickens and we’ve had chicken lockdown for quite a few years in a row. What’s interesting is that now it doesn’t go away in the summer anymore. It’s had a terrible impact on some of our endangered native birds.

But no I am not worried about my own health in relation to bird flu.

No im not worried about it.

I think there’s definitely a possibility that it will start spreading from person to person eventually, but I like to hope that if/when that happens the world will be more prepared than it was for Covid.

Human infection's still very rare, and always (afaik) linked to direct contact with infected birds. I feel very sorry for all the birds being culled, but still support this obvious means of limiting the virus's opportunities to mutate in mammals.

H5N1 has been monitored & controlled for years, it's unlikely to get a chance to run wild like Covid. There were 5 UK cases in 2024, zero deaths. It does kill when untreated, though.

No. I don’t spend my life worrying about the very worst outcomes of things which could potentially happen. Also, I keep pet ducks, so they’re my principal concern with bird flue and not going near them isn’t an option..

A tiny bit. I follow some experts on twitter and they aren't currently too worried.
I'm still pretty hot on handwashing, never touch my face or door handles etc.

No. Obviously not. We should have learnt by now that these things are never a big deal, and no fuss is required.

I’m not worried about it in the sense of losing sleep over it. However, I do think the risk of cross-over into human-to-human transmission is very real and if it does it could be nasty.

One real stroke of luck with covid is that children were generally less severely unwell, and I worry a bird flu pandemic might have quite a different profile.

True - unlike covid which caught us unawares there’s no excuse not to be prepared for H5N1.

I wouldn't say I'm worried about bird flu currently. I do think though that on balance we were "lucky" with COVID in that SARS viruses can have very high mortality rates.

Bird Flu has been around for years and its nothing to worry about unless you cluck.

Everyone who keeps birds is now required by law to register with DEFRA, this is to keep the spread under control and to support people with the correct information for reducing the spread. I think we are doing pretty much everything we can on a societal level to keep the risks low, but of course nobody can force an individual to follow the protocols exactly. Life is about coping with and managing a certain amount of risk in all things, afterall.

Hi, Cynic, meet Ebola. You'll get on well.

What’s the point in worrying about it? It won’t change anything.

There was a bird flu panic in around 2008 or thereabouts that came to nothing. Same with the swine flu panic, so no, not too worried at all.

Haven't heard any recent news about bird flu danger to humans. Normal flu, yes, there have been several news reports about people being particularly unwell this year and concerns around hospitals filling up. It's a good idea to have a flu vaccination, can be done privately in pharmacies for less than £20.

Yes in so far as I am “worried” this is what concerns me.

My budgies are worried. They've been tweeting about it.

Not especially. What's the point?

Not since I no longer keep chickens, bird flu used to worry me from the flockdown POV but not any more.

We've got chickens so the restrictions are more of an inconvenience than a worry. It's a nuisance but completely understand and support it in order to protect the wild bird population.

We are well away from the current restriction zone but inevitably as in previous years there will be a housing order across the whole country.